A brand new ABC book featuring strong female role models and positive attributes!

ABC Like a Girl is out!

We’re very excited about it, since it is not only a book that portrays women and girls in a positive way to children from an early age, but also promotes literacy by teaching the alphabet and building a larger vocabulary!

ABC Like a Girl is out now, and it is an awesome book that really showcases some great role models and values for kids. If you’re excited about ABC Like a Girl, and you’re looking for more engaging children’s books that feature girls, girls of color, and girls learning about STEM subjects, and just generally girls being awesome role models for all kids, then have no fear, this is the blog post for you!

A brand new ABC book featuring strong female role models and positive attributes!

As a lifetime fan of children’s literature, and an Early Childhood Educator, I always have my eye out for great books that inspire kids. And while this post is going to focus on a lot of books that feature girls and women, don’t feel like that means those books aren’t for your boys. Boys benefit greatly from seeing women and girls as the heroes too!

Also, there are books on this list about girls of color, and while children of color benefit from seeing heroes like themselves, white children benefit from seeing kids of color represented, and represented in positive, and heroic ways! So, lets take a look at some great kids books: Read More

ABC Like a Girl is finished and I’ll be getting the physical proof from the printer any time now to look over so we can make sure it’s perfect! I’m VERY excited with how it turned out, and there is some art on there that I never even shared on Instagram or the Facebook page, so everyone is going to be in for a treat 🙂

It turned out longer than I think people were expecting. There are multiple attributes and/or careers for each letter and we wanted to give each idea it’s own room to hit home and shine. Some will resonate differently with different people and we wanted to make sure all of these important concepts felt as important as they are. So, the book is over 100 pages. Full color, paperback. I feel like it’s like a coffee table book you can actually let the kids in your life handle. Its beautiful to look at, but its not just for sitting around and looking pretty. Plus, there is going to be something new to get out of it every time they pick it up for a long time, but it isn’t a linear story, so there isn’t the worry of losing the plot and losing interest. I think this is going to be a book to capture kids attention and imagination for a long time, and I’m excited to get the proof looked at some I can finally put it out for sale.

There have been A LOT of people asking when it’s coming, and if I can, I’ll have it available before the US Election. There has been so much negative talk about women and girls during this election and I’ve heard from friends internationally it’s even showing up on news there. I want to get this out as soon as possible so families, educators, and children have a tool to positively work against those messages, and can get back on track valuing and respecting eachother and themselves.

Virunga National Park is in the East Congo, and is a very dangerous place, for people and animals. It is one of the few places that gorillas and other endangered animals still remain in the wild. However, because of the terrain and the proximity from human habitations, it is an ideal location for not just poachers, but rebel military forces and other dangerous criminals looking for a place to hide. It is the oldest national park in the entire continent of Africa. Historically the job of Park Ranger to Virunga has been an only male job. Women were not allowed to be Park Rangers.

However, in 2014 four women passed the very difficult tests to become the first female Virunga National Park Rangers. Kisamya became the first female section commander, and she and her team of women protected the gorillas, tourists, and the Park from danger.

Since then ten more women have passed the exams, and successfullyy passed training with Belgian Commandos to learn battle field tactics and and extreme survival skills to use against groups from illegal loggers to anti-government groups.

The woman I painted represents these women, although she is caring for a rhino instead of a gorilla. She represents women who care about nature and animals and choose to take that out into the field, even though the field may be dangerous. The picture also shows Indigenous Women caring for and protecting animals that live in their area, and achieving more autonomy over their homes. Another woman I thought of as I painted R is for Ranger, was Kinessa Johnson, a former US Army veteran, who after her time in Afghanistan joined a program called Empowered to Protect African Wildlife (VETPAW), which trains other people, like Kisamya. So Kinessa uses her skills and teaches Kisamya to protect the animals.

It just goes to show, when we work together we can accomplish great things!

I chose the name “Like a Girl” for my book deliberately. It’s a phrase that is often targeted at women, girls, and even men and boys, to undercut them. To belittle them, to put them in their place. We are raised from when we are young to be in a society where there are binary sexual identities and gender roles. We are raised in a society that values women and girls less than men and boys, and if either girls or boys don’t follow their prescribed gender roles they targeted. Boys are told they do things “like a girl”, as in, wrong. Girls are denied access to things because they do things “like a girl”, as in, inadequately.

Like a Girl ABC’s, which focuses on different aspects and careers that women and girls can, and do, participate in, and have, is almost finished. These coloring pages are some of the first pages of the book! They have been enjoyed by my preschool class, and I hope you enjoy them as well! Some are based on real life women (Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic-American woman in space) and some on everyday women and girls who behave in extraordinary ways, such as helping a family pet. Enjoy!